Customs and Trade News - May 2022

African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)

The UK is to support the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, the world's largest free trade area initiative. For UK businesses, the trade bloc will remove market access barriers by creating a single continental market, making it easier and more cost-effective for UK businesses to export goods across the 54 AfCFTA member states. In 2020 the UK imported £171.8 million worth of seafood from the member states and exported £7.04 million to the member states.

Switzerland

The UK has started work for a new enhanced trade deal with Switzerland. The Department for International Trade is launching an eight-week consultation calling on businesses for their views ahead of the start of negotiations. In 2020 the UK exported £4,362 million of seafood to Switzerland.   

Japan

Prime Minister Boris Johnson appoints Greg Clark MP as Trade Envoy to Japan to reinforce the strong UK-Japan trading relationship. The UK has applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Japan is its largest economy and the UK’s 13th largest trading partner. Trade Envoys promote UK trade and encourage inward investment from across the world. Japan has a high fish and seafood consumption per capita, 45.49kg in 2017 (Source: UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Further information

We welcome comments and feedback from the seafood industry, so that your issues are understood and fed into the Free Trade Agreement negotiations. Should you wish to email or arrange a meeting, please contact christina.fallah@seafish.co.uk in the Regulation Team.